Better Capital sees retail payment gaps beyond UPI in checkout, vending and settlements

Better Capital’s payments thesis spotlights Skydo, Vendekin, Driffle and Shopflo, arguing that vertical-specific transaction infrastructure remains an investment opportunity despite India’s broad UPI adoption.

— FiledFri, 11 Sept, 2026, 14:35 IST·First seen Fri, 11 Sept, 2026, 14:34 IST·Source Entrackr

What happened

Better Capital outlines its India payments investment thesis, highlighting Skydo’s cross-border collections, Vendekin’s unattended retail stack, Driffle’s

Key facts

  • tens of thousands of Indian businesses and freelancers
  • five-part series

Why this matters

UPI may solve basic payments, but retailers still need specialized infrastructure to improve checkout conversion, automate vending and streamline settlement workflows.

What to watch

  • Growth in merchant demand for smart routing, one-click checkout, tokenization, subscription billing and payment-failure recovery.
  • RBI or NPCI rule changes affecting UPI pricing, credit-on-UPI, offline payments, recurring mandates, interoperability or settlement requirements.
  • Evidence that vending, kiosks and other unattended retail formats scale beyond pilot deployments.
  • Large PSPs, banks or commerce platforms launching integrated reconciliation and marketplace-settlement products.
  • Rising merchant willingness to pay SaaS fees for payment operations even where transaction fees are compressed.

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